Billy Joel was already a seasoned, if commercially unsuccessful professional when he signed with producer/manager Artie Ripp’s “Family Productions” label in 1971. Previously Joel had recorded for the United Artists label (two albums with “The Hassles”) and Epic (one album with “Attila”).

Joel recorded the album “Cold Spring Harbor” for the “Family Productions” label, but, though the album was musically good, and the beginning of the musical style that made Joel famous, the actual LP horrified Joel. Due to technical problems, likely a two-track recorder running slow during mixdown, the music played 6 to 10 per cent faster during mastering, and the resulting vinyl LP played too fast. [The wikipedia reported that according to a long standing rumor, when Joel first heard the finished product, he “ripped it off the turntable, ran out of the house, and threw [the record] down the street.”]

Joel wanted the album withdrawn and corrected, but “Family Productions” decided to cut their losses, and said “No”. Joel then broke his contract with “Family Productions” and signed with CBS. The settlement with Artie Ripp proved very costly to Billy Joel. Starting from the album “Piano Man” in 1973, Artie Ripp would receive (and still receives) 20 per cent of the artist royalties from the albums that Joel released from 1973 to 1986. (This is why the “Family Productions” logo appears on the labels of all Billy Joel albums up to 1986’s “The Bridge”.

It is worth noting that even based on hearing the “Cold Spring Harbor” album in its sped-up form, the short-lived “Words & Music” magazine stated (in its July 1972 issue) “It’s exciting to watch this performer start to happen. Billy Joel has all the right things going for him that could, with any luck at all, catipult him to the top.”

Not content to rake in enormous amounts of money from Joel’s subsequent commercially successful albums (“All this because he ‘discovered’ me” says Joel), Artie Ripp decided to get in his final licks against Billy Joel in a remixed, pitch-corrected, but (musically) drastically altered and overdubbed version of the “Cold Spring Harbor” album and, surprisingly, Columbia released it in 1983.

It is not known whether Joel could have stopped the release of the altered album, even if he wanted to. He never commented publicly on the remix. In the 1983 edition, “You Can Make Me Free” has been chopped down to less than half its original length. On the folk-rock tune “Everybody Loves You Now”, a new rhythm section (musicians who had never worked with Joel) was overdubbed, imposing a galloping disco beat onto a song from the pre-disco era. The same overdubbed bassist and drummer, plus an electric piano player and a synthesizer player have been overdubbed onto “Turn Around” replacing most of the original backing musicians, and on “Tomorrow is Today”, the bass, drums and orchestra have been mixed out, leaving only piano and vocals.

This bootleg edition is a de-clicked, pitch-corrected dub of the original “Family Productions” LP, so you can hear the album as Billy Joel intended it. No still-living performer should have his music subjected to a posthumous-style doctoring akin to what Alan Douglas did to the music on Jimi Hendrix’s “Crash Landing” and “Midnight Lightning” albums. - Philip Cohen

Thanks to Phil for sharing the tracks.

Note: A longtime music fan, Philip Cohen was a contributor to the now-defunct ICE Magazine and compiled the boxsets for The Yardbirds, The Small Faces, Humble Pie and Nice.

Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 224 kbps).

Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. Please try again later. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.

Thanks for posting this show. I am constantly amazed to hear these horror stories of how these musical artists were / are ripped off. 20% of all future earnings for a period of time? How much would the guy gotten if Joel worked for him? I am surprised that Billy has any money at all. His first wife was his business manager and took him for a bundle, and later he lost his shirt to his brother-in-law. You think a guy would learn. What did Oprah say? Sign your own checks baby!

The settlement is equivalent to what Artie Ripp’s and/or his company would have received by producing all of the Billy Joel albums up through 1986’s “The Bridge”. But it is still a less than fair settlement. Did Ripp actually sign Joel to a 15-year deal?
The Who took even more severe losses in a settlement with producer Shel Talmy;one which gave Talmy an amount(then in 1966) equivalent to 5% of wholsesale price(then in 1966 half the artist royalties) on all albums that The Who would make up through and including “Live at Leeds”.

Joel WAS much higher pitched back then. Heavy smoking, and Joel’s attempts to prove himself a Rock n’Roller(by developing a more forced,growling “rock” vocal style) changed his voice and lowered his vocal range. This change became audible on the album “Glass Houses”.

thanks for all of phil for all of his posts, but this one especially. i have the original lp, & a bootleg copy, & tried to speed correct it on tape i made years ago. phil, you saved me a lot of trouble with this one.

Many thanks Phil & BigO for this one. I heard about how this album was mastered to fast and I thought that was corrected on the remaster from a few years back. I’m glad to hear it the way it should be heard.

Thank you, Big O!! I’ve had a scratchy bootleg of Cold Spring Harbor, which also has some skips, for several years now… Nice to have it glitch-free now! I’ll never understand why the 1984 remaster butchered some of the songs. I love just about everything Billy Joel has done, but the ORIGINAL version of “You Can Make Me Free” is one of my favorites.

Any Billy concerts you can offer up, whether older or more recent, would be welcome!

Thank you so much for releasing this pitch corrected version of original Cold Spring Harbor. I recently purchased a copy of the original album from a eBay seller. Definitely a collector’s album, but sad to listen. Billy Joel got RIPPed off and the evidence is obvious when playing the record. Sure an artist should honor a recording contract, but the record company should also act in the artist’s best interest. This clearly was not done. I hate Family Productions for what they did to my favorite artist. Billy Joel rules!!!

Cold Spring Harbor needs to be remastered plain and simple. Bringing the speed to normal should be the only change while leaving everything else in the original 1971 recording/release exactly as is. The biggest travesty, to me, about the ‘83 reissue of Cold Spring is cutting off the final 3 minutes of the 2nd track, “You Can Make Me Free”, leaving out the awesome guitar jam with Billy going-to-town with his best (and very good) nod to Paul McCartney.

What also should be released is all the rest of the Family Production sessions from ‘71 which didn’t make Cold Spring Harbor; mostly raw and rough around the edges but definitely foreshadowing a musical legend to be. The highlight of these recordings is the original version of “Nocturne” with (haunting) lyrics included (perhaps an additional ’suicide note’ to go with “Tomorrow is Today” - Thank God the words never went into fruition).

under silver seas, it`s always a pleasure to read a well thought out post , and especially about an artist or a show I might not normally pay attention to.
What you have done is piqued my interest here, and that is a measure of a good post/review, thank you.

there are some fm brdcsts of billy doing live performances of most of if not all of cold spring harbor. the ones i remember most vividly are from 73 and 74 phila. wmmr brdcst at least one of them. wbcn did one that i recall as well. the earliest nyc area show that i recall seeing him live wasnt til the bottom line in 76 and by then he had abandoned the songs from that album. it was also brdcst. then there was carnegie hall and nassau coliseum which were also both brdcst. at least carnegie hall is available officially now. part of nassau may be also. i think his nassau 82 soundcheck was brdcst where he did 45mins of cover songs like van halen and jimi hendrix songs. then he did an 83 nassau show that he brdcst on tv and released on vhs. i saw all these shows and for me that was the end of his worth seeing era. i lost interest personally at this point. he was no longer a rocker after this point. the music was fine but not if u wanted the rnr billy. for collectors however he never failed to make fm or sbd or tv material available for the fans.

Wow, this is absolutely the best version of “Cold Spring Harbor” I’ve heard, and I’ve listened through half a dozen or more various attempts at finding the correct speed for the original LP. When you listen to the first few chords of “She’s Got a Way” on this one, it’s immediately obvious that this was done right.

Thank you for your dedication, Mr. Cohen. Is there a chance we can get a quality bump on this? I’d love to have a lossless version of this fantastic rip.

Ive known this LP for years …not knowing it was not the original, but an 83 remix! Must admit though that “Everybody loves you” with that “galloping” rhythm sounds natural and, to be honest with you guys, the original version’s drumming doesn’t hold together so well. One can hear an unforgiven beat error at 0′28″ for instance. So, in essence, it could be that there was some wisdom behind those changes after all. However, it is obvious they shouldnt have gone that far as to altering the tracks.

Also, has anybody noticed 1983 alterations in “She’s Got A Way”?
Bridge, 1′15″. I dont dislike the origonal. but must say that alterations there are rather favourable.
On the other hand though, a “new” (that is original) “2moro is today” with horns and strings is just breathtaking. Billy got a maximum out of this tune, really. Mind you, listening to the 1983 version one can tell that the idea behind all those alterations was to make this album sound more subdued, as if this LP was just a piano+voice LP - but in fact, it wasn’t!
Sorry, guys - just sharing some reflections.

And one more thing.
There’s an alteration even on “Nocturne”!
Get to the very end and listen how BJ originally concluded the track on a hanging chord, while those players at Family added a “solution” phrase. Slick and “clever”, but what an awful move!
BTW, it is NOT TRUE that both tracks are same tempo. I popped them onto Audacity and discovered that 1983 version is 0,6sec shorter, hence faster (excluding the beforementioned addition).

This is the equivalent of an SACD version of COLD SPRING HARBOR. Impeccable, a rare treat and what a way to go into the weekend. God bless you for doing this. I will review this new version later, but in just a few short listens - it’s already remarkable for the new detail.

Being an avid Joel fan as well as a pro musician and audio engineer who has played and recorded his songs, I need to set the record straight, so to speak, on the pitch issues. First off, the ‘83 remix did not have the pitch/speed corrected on all the mixes. Ripp messed around with them and I think it was an attempt to make Joel’s vocal tone compare with his more mature tone in the early 80’s. I don’t think it worked, but that’s another blog. “She’s got a way” is about 47 cents flat of concert pitch (roughly a quarter tone). I have two live recordings from the “Cold Spring Harbor” tour in ‘72 as well as sheet music and other references that I’ve compared everything to, including my piano at A 440, and I believe I may have the only properly pitch corrected version. Most versions, including the one on this page, appear to have been corrected when compared to the ‘83 remix, which I’ve already said is not quite correct. It’s an innocent mistake.

I found, when adjusting the ‘83 remix, that the pitch is the most off at the beginning of the recording and seems to settle closer to what it should be by the end of the album. The other pitch corrected versions of the ‘71 vinyl I’ve found are similar. I find that really odd, to say at the least. It makes me wonder if the original 2″ tapes were flawed, not just the pressing of the master. I have no idea, I can only speculate.

Proper pitch/keys are as follows:
1. She’s got a way - key of G
2. You can make me free - starts in C, moves to F and back and forth.
3. Everybody loves you now - Key of C
4. Why Judy Why - key of G
5. Falling of the rain - key of F
6. Turn around - key of G
7. You look so good to me - key of G
8. Tomorrow is today - key of C
9. Nocturne - key of A minor (C)
10. Got to begin again - key of G

I can’t find the website I originally got the vinyl recording from, (I owned two copies years ago) but it’s 16 bit @ 48k and the original poster did a fine job of cleaning up the audio to leave it relatively free of any noticeable vinyl artifacts and whoever it was altered the pitch/speed very close to what it should be. I used Transcribe! to do the initial pitch/speed correction. Then I rented Celemony Capstan to copy some old tapes over and thought I’d give it a shot at correcting the pitch drifting that was evident throughout the entire recording (most wouldn’t notice it) - and within a few cents, my updated version is as close to bang on as any fan could hope for. My only criticism is there are some fades that were shorter than I would have liked. And whether a mis-aligned cartridge or worn vinyl, some peaks have some of the stereotypical vinyl “distortion” that no technology can repair. The version available on this page is comparable in that regard.

I’m considering making three versions available: 1) Original vinyl pitch properly corrected but otherwise untouched, 2) Original vinyl, properly pitch corrected with a little EQ to warm it up (my recommendation) and 3) 1983 remix with the pitches on all songs properly corrected. These files are iTunes-ready with proper cover artwork in 600×600 jpeg format, and saved in m4a format @ 320kbps. I’m truly anal about this stuff so trust me when I say the quality is as good as it can be and the graphics are accurate. I’ve even toyed with remastering the original vinyl to account for some lousy mixing and to bring it a little more in line with what it would sound like if it was remastered today. I’m taking my time with it so it won’t be available for a while.

I’m curious for some feedback and if the original poster contacts me, I’ll come up with some way to make the files available for a limited time. However, it would sure save me work if CBS would just get their hands on the original master and re-release it properly. Ripp can burn for what he did to it in ‘83. It’s no surprise the engineer refused to allow his name to be included in the album notes. Jimmy Haskel’s orchestration in “Tomorrow is Today” is classic and should never have been tampered with and being someone who writes orchestrations for people, I can’t tell you how incredibly disgusted I am with the bastardized version us fans were left with.

I also just found a pristine copy of “Souvenir”, a 1977 promo LP. The mix sucks but it’s great BJ history. Next up, I’m going to try to find another copy of “The Lecture tapes”, a promo LP put out in…uh….1980?…I think. I had copies of all these years ago and had my entire collection stolen.

In the early 70’s (can’t remember the exact
date but it was shortly after the release of Piano Man, probably late ‘73 or early ‘74) I worked as a contract recording engineer at Mama Joe’s in North Hollywood (now called Dave’s Room). I did mostly demos and remixes. For a few weeks I worked with Artie Ripp remixing the Cold Springs Harbor album (just the two of us).

Artie would show up in his Excalibur kit car (had the top down rain or shine) with the 16 track master, a bunch of smoke and nose candy, and we would commence to spend the night mixing the album.

I would bill him weekly and after the the first delay in his paying me (I had been cautioned that he might try to defer paying me as long as he could), I camped out in his office and didn’t leave until I got my check (which was good). Note: Artie did pay me for all of my time.

One day Artie didn’t show up and I was told he took his tape and was going somewhere else to mix it. I never knew where and when the final remix took place. Thanks for info above.

For you techies, Mama Joe’s had a 24 track analog Spectra Sonics-based (http://spectra-sonics.com) mixing board, a 3M 16 track tape recorder, a Scully 1/4″ 2 track for mastering, and the usual assortment of mics, rack components, patch bay, etc., that studios had during that period.

This album was in a collection of many great LP’s when I was a child. I remember the first time I listened to it. I had just finished Yes- Close To The Edge and this gem in one sitting (At 6 years old no less!). It was monumentally important to me, influence wise, as a musician. Many years later as a studio tech in my early 20’s I proceeded to do some elementary pitch correction myself. I still remember sitting next to the wall of our big green Sears console record player as Nocturne played during a late afternoon thunderstorm. It still gives me goosebumps.Thanks for your effort in letting people hear it all over again!

I had seen the existence of “The Harbour sessions” on billyjoelfan.com but it has obviously not been released overseas because I have never seen it in australia so to be able to hear this is splendid. I had also heard that “You can make me free” had been cut by over half its length on the reissue of coldspring harbour in 1983 which I have so I have always been curious as to how it originally was. This song is really Billy Joel’s version of “Hey Jude.” I love the “AAAAHHH AHHH AAAAAH” backing vocals. Also to hear the string arrangement on “Tomorrow is today” gives that song a whole different feel altogether. What is evident on this album is Joel’s immense skill in writing quality melodies from the word go. On “Coldspring harbour” they are beautiful and sweeping melodies. I love the melody of “Turn around” and “Falling of the rain.” The lyrics aren’t that good but you can easily close your eyes and enjoy the melodies. It all sounds pretty good and Billy’s vocals are strong if a little varied and a total contrast to how his voice sounds today. Years of heavy smoking did that of course. I believe his smoking was deliberate because he was trying to screw his voice up so much so he could sound like Ray Charles which to some extent happened. Here though he sounds just like Paul Mcartney

Darth said: ” that was the end of his worth seeing era. i lost interest personally at this point. he was no longer a rocker after this point. the music was fine but not if u wanted the rnr billy.”

Well, Darth, I used to give you the benefit of the doubt around here but now I’m with everyone else:” You’re a goddamnmed idiot.

If you think Billy stopped playing “rock” after 1983 or so, you’re a moron. You obviously didn’t hear him jam with Winwood on “Getting Closer” from The Bridge (Note to BigO: I’d love to see the Joel/Winwood jam sessions get posted here!), or great tracks on the Storm Front and River of Dreams albums like “That’s Not Her Style,” “The Downeaster Alexa,” “I Go To Extremes,” “Shameless,” “No Man’s Land,” “Great Wall of China,” “Shades of Grey,” and plenty more.

So Joel’s style may have changed a bit album to album, but his being a musical chameleon of sorts is one of the things that made him so great. Believe me, I went to number of Billy concerts between 1990-1995 and he never stopped rocking. Your loss.

I’ve also seen Billy a few times in the years since ‘95, some really good, some not as good. His decision to stop writing songs and recording is unfortunate, and at times it’s led to him phoning it in onstage. The fact remains that he’s an oldies act now, and that’s too bad because he’s better than that.

But his performances have gotten better again in recent years (check out his kick-ass set at the 12.12.12 Hurrican Sandy benefit). Now I just wish he’d find the muse again. I think he could have a great late in life comeback with a producer like Rick Rubin or T-Bone Burnett.

Also, I agree with the earlier post above asking for more Billy concerts here… Any era would be welcome: The 1976 Bottom Line show (pitch/speed corrected, please), 1982 Long Island (the video’s been out of print for ages), London 1984 (BBC broadcast, never released), Yankee Stadium 1990, Frankfurt 1994 (a show I had but someone stole), anything!

Your remark about Stan Polley really got my attention. Polley deserves to burn in hell for what he did to Badfinger and Pete Ham in particular. For his sake I hope he repented in later life but from what I know about him I don’t think he did.

“In 1991, Polley pleaded no contest to charges of misappropriating funds and money laundering in Riverside County, California. Aeronautics engineer Peter Brock accused Polley of swindling him for US$250,000 after the two set up a corporation to manufacture airplane engines. Polley was placed on probation for five years and ordered by the court to return all missing funds to Brock, although the complainant said the restitution never materialized.” (Wikipedia)

guy - someone not agreeing with u doesnt make them an idiot. does it make u one if they dont agree with u? what makes your opinion right and better than mine? if the man phones it in as u admit then how is he better than that? clearly he isnt better than that. if he has that many shows where he is proving that he is nothing more than a lounge act and all hes doing is sitting behind a piano and doing a bill murray impression of himself ala sat nite live.. then im sorry.. he isnt better than that. and sure u can find one or two examples of a song or two or even 5-10 single song examples where he got some energy in order to get people to send in money etc. but when hes at an arena or stadium and there are 10-30k people who paid $25-120 or more for tickets and most of the set is him sitting there snoring thru songs.. it just isnt rock n roll anymore. ive seen him jamming. ive seen him rocking out. he just doesnt do that anymore and he stopped doing it after 83. sure there may have been a few times since then where he drank an energy drink and knew he was on tv or something and was worried about how he would appear to millions if he didnt wake up but im talking about how he is for the most part. and no it doesnt make me an idiot or a moron for expressing my opinion and telling it how it is. u seem to have some serious issues.

btw.. u can take yankee stadium video / dvd and record the audio track from it and have a perfect quality audio counterpart. i did that and its a fine way to get a copy that way.
theres also a new london ct 76 or 77 video that his ex filmed perfectly and the audio feed is thru the sbd. its about an hour long. this is in collectors circles. thats an incredible recording too. its very rare but its killer. then theres nassau 77 but thats official now. and theres carnegie hall 77. but thats official now too. he did a 45min soundcheck at nassau col in 83 where he did covers of other peoples songs like jimi and van halen etc. it was an fm brdcst over wlir or something. other than the copy i had i dont ever remember seeing anyone else having a copy of this. i no longer have it. there was a video of a leningrad performance without an audio counterpart to it as well.

anyone who says … “if he has that many shows where he is proving that he is nothing more than a lounge act and all hes doing is sitting behind a piano and doing a bill murray impression of himself ..”
about billy joel isn`t a real fan ,sorry.I don`t care if you saw him once or one billion, you have slagged him too many times .

Anyway….. getting back to what it’s all about
(the music), any Billy Joel fans might want to take a wander over to confederatemountain blogspot where they will find quite a nice assortment of concerts.
Thanks as ever to BigO for the wonderful and eclectic choice of music here

i agree. im not a real fan of his any longer. i am a fan of the pre 84 billy. i am not a fan of the post 83 billy. just like i am a fan of the pre 84 floyd and not the post 84 floyd. or the kelly foreigner vs the gramm era. or the perry journey vs the pre perry journey. i could go on forever. the point is.. i dont have to label myself for your acceptance. i like what i like and i can pinpoint it according to what i see the change being. in billys case there is an obvious difference in how he performed and the music he put out.
no im not a fan of his any longer. yes i was a fan of his in the 70s and early 80s. no i dont care what u think of me or my fan-ship. do u care what i think of u or yours? highly doubtful. i didnt slag him at all. i expressed my opinion. and im entitled to it. a true fan of anyones work doesnt just sit there glazed eyed and drooling over everything an artist puts out and sight unseen loves it for no other reason than the fact that someone they love appears on it. thats just ridiculous. granted there are times that simply being a part of a product seems to make it worth owning for some artists and producers etc. but billy isnt one of those people. i see myself a little more as an objective listener i suppose than a subjective one.

“She’s got a way” sounds like it was remastered by the same tech that produced the chipmunks. This is foul and not the Billy Joel we have come to know and love. Sorry pitch correct or whatever its wrong.